Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/134

which congress, in the progress of the government, have made use of incidental and implied means to execute its powers. They are almost infinitely varied in their ramifications and details. It is proposed, however, to take notice of the principal measures, which have been contested, as not within the scope of the powers of congress, and which may be distinctly traced in the operations of the government, and in leading party divisions.^[1]

---

1. Some minor points will be found in the debates collected in 4 Elliot's Debates, 139, 141, 229, 234, 235, 238, 239, 240, 243, 249, 251, 252, 261, 265, 263, 270, 271, 280. There is no express power given by the constitution to erect forts, or magazines, or light-houses, or piers, or buoys, or public buildings, or to make surveys of the coast; but they have been constantly deemed incidental to the general powers. Mr. Bayard's Speech in 1807,(4 Elliot's Debates, 26;) Mr. Pickering's Speech, 1817, (4 Elliot's Debates, 280.)